BUNN—It ended with a thud on a cool, Franklin County evening, but for Allen Wooten, the conclusion of his first season as head football coach at Greene Central seemed more like a beginning.

“Although I’m disappointed with tonight’s outcome,” Wooten said after his team was thumped 69-20 by Bunn in the opening round of the state 2AA playoffs, “I know that the future looks bright. We made the playoffs when nobody expected it and we have some good young kids moving up from a junior varsity team that was undefeated and won the conference. I’m excited by what I see on the horizon.”

Unfortunately, Wooten’s optimism couldn’t carry over to his team’s performance against the Wildcats, co-champions of the Northern Carolina 2A Conference.

After spotting the Rams a quick 6-0 lead, Bunn exploded for 34 unanswered points before halftime, and they did it almost exclusively with the deceptive running game they’ve relied upon all season.

Bunn (8-4 overall, 4-1 NC2A) entered the game having thrown just 80 passes while rushing for over 2500 yards during the regular season.

In Friday’s contest, the Wildcats shredded the GC defense for 477 yards on the ground, led by Tevin Ferrell’s 256 on 16 carries.

Ferrell, a speedy, elusive 160-pound senior, also found the end zone four times. He reeled off eight runs of at least 11 yards and six of at least 26, averaging an incredible 16 yards per attempt.

As a team, the Wildcats averaged 11.6 yards every time they decided to run the football.

“They executed well and they have a very good, experienced offensive line,” Wooten said. “They were more physical than we were and they also had greater depth than we did up front. We just didn’t have an answer for their rushing attack, even when we committed eight or nine guys to stop the run.”

GC also moved the ball well on the ground, rolling up 272 yards paced by senior Ronshon Bullock, who closed out his career with a hard-working 137 yards on 20 carries.

The Rams were undone, however, by untimely turnovers.

Trailing 14-6 late in the first quarter, GC coughed up a fumble at the end of a nine-play, 57-yard drive, handing the ball over at the Bunn 23.

In the second quarter the Rams drove from their own 20 to the Bunn 4 before again putting the ball on the ground. Adding insult to injury, the Wildcats then put together an 11-play, 96-yard TD drive just before the end of the half, which Bunn led 34-6.

A third-quarter, GC fumble at its own 30 gave Bunn a short field to work with and resulted in another Wildcat touchdown.

“You can’t turn the ball over three times, including a couple of times in the red zone, against a team as good as Bunn and expect to win,” Wooten said. “The only chance we had was to play an almost perfect football game, and for whatever reason, we didn’t come anywhere close. We didn’t play nearly as well as we did the last several weeks of the regular season.”

In addition to the three lost fumbles, the Rams, who finished the season 3-9, were also stopped on downs two other times on the Bunn side of the field.

Brandon Belcher provided the GC biggest highlight of the evening with a 39-yard reverse TD pass to Michael Mitchell on the first play of the third quarter.

Belcher also returned the opening kickoff 44 yards to set up GC’s first score, a 26-yard sweep by Curtez Braswell.

“It didn’t end the way we wanted, but this team has nothing to be ashamed of,” Wooten said. “We had a great group of (20) seniors who never gave up even when we started the season 0-7. This team exceeded everyone’s expectations and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”